Reading Group Guide Discussion Questions

Four Quadrant Living: Making Healthy Living Your New Way of Lifeby Dina Colman

Thank you for choosing Four Quadrant Living for your book group. Below are a few questions to help guide your discussion. Feel free to use the ones that resonate with you and leave the ones that don’t. You can also add some questions of your own.

Discussion Questions

1. At the end of each quadrant section, the author has a list of questions for the reader to identify which areas need more nourishing for greater health. Which of the four quadrants are you currently nourishing? Which do you feel needs more attention?

2. In Chapter 12, If You Knew You Could Not Fail, the author describes how answering the question: “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” changed her life. How would you answer this question? What are the obstacles standing in your way?

3. In Chapter 24, Pink Ribbons and Red Hearts, the author talks about her family history of cancer on her mom’s side and heart disease on her dad’s side. What illnesses “run” in your family? How often do you think about them? Are you currently acting on this knowledge in any way? Have you made any changes in your life because of this knowledge?

4. In Chapter 36, Dying Healthy, the author talks about how she had the benefit of knowledge of her high risk of cancer, whereas her sister did not. She says that “information is power.” Yet, she also mentions the studies which have shown that women who were afraid of dying from a heart attack were more likely to do so than those who did not express this fear. Do you think it is better to know you may be at risk, or not?

5. In Chapter 48, My Love Affair with a Mountain, the author talks about feeling a oneness to the world while being out in nature. Do you have a special spot you go to, or that you have been to, where you feel a connection to something grand?

6. Four Quadrant Living is based on the idea that all four quadrants impact our health. Do you agree with the connection between each of the quadrants—Mind, Body, Relationships, and Environment—and health? Can you think of a time in your life (or in the life of someone you know) when there was a physical illness because of something going on in your (their) Mind? Body? Relationships? Environment?

7. What is one change in each quadrant that you are motivated to make after reading Four Quadrant Living?

8. Were there certain chapters or ideas that resonated the most with you?

9. Do you agree with the idea of epigenetics, that is, our genes are not our destiny? Do you believe that it is our DNA plus our environment that determines our health, or do you think it is just our DNA?

10. What do you think was the author’s motivation for writing Four Quadrant Living? What do you think she wanted the reader to take away from it?

11. In Chapter 1, Creating Your Own Masterpiece, the author encourages you, the reader, to actively create your own life. She says it took her four decades to finally find her way. She quotes Confucius, “If we do not change our direction, we will end up where we are headed.” In what direction are you headed, and is this where you really want to go?